Billy Ray Cyrus is opening up about what it was like raising Miley Cyrus before she became America's twerk queen.
Sitting down with Queen Latifah on her eponymous gabfest on Tuesday, the 52-year-old country crooner dished on what it was like for his daughter in the Cyrus household and the amazing artists she was exposed to in her formative years.
"She grew up in a house where you'd see Waylon Jennings, Ed King, you know, the great Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar player who wrote "Sweet Home Alabama" and so many other great songs. Ed sittin' at the kitchen table showing Miley the chords to "Sweet Home Alabama or Waylon showing her "Good Hearted Woman," the "Achy Breaky Heart" singer told the hip-hopster turned talk show host.
Latifah, who costarred with country legend Dolly Parton in 2012's musical film Joyful Noise, couldn't resist mentioning her big-screen cohort.
"And, of course, Dolly. Dolly Parton was around, so she's had amazing people in her life," noted the actress. "But…is it tough for you as a dad to watch everything [Miley] goes through sometimes?"
To which a bearded Billy Ray replied: "You know, it's like everything. There's an opposite and equal reaction for everything that's good. There's got to be a flip side to that. Miley's a really smart, young lady; she's a very creative artist."
The elder Cyrus added that having folks like Parton around gave the former Hannah Montana star good guidance in terms of her oft-criticized bid to shed her Disney past—just see for examples her controversial, unapologetic, booty-shaking MTV VMAs performance, her twerk-filled music video for "We Can't Stop" and her new "Wrecking Ball" clip in which she poses nude.
"That intangible of reinvention, that's the thing that Dolly is so good at, you know. That's the thing, you go through, you make your music, you do your art and there comes a time where you have to figure that out yourself," he said. "You can't really count on someone else to give you that lesson, but again, Miley was raised around a lot of legends herself."
Whether or not the young hitmaker heads down that same path, only time will tell.